No more cloud: ‘Sim City’ finally gets offline mode

“Let’s get right to it. SIM CITY OFFLINE IS COMING!” Those are the words of Patrick Buechner of Maxis who unveiled of Sim City‘s plan to add offline play with the Update 10 software patch.

These are the words Sim City players have been waiting for. Offline play isn’t available yet and it’s going to take a hell of a lot of “testing, testing and more testing” by Sim City‘s extreme gameplay wizards, the DevTesters. Maxis is in the late stages of development for the offline mod and won’t release it until it’s as bug-free as possible. Sim City is no stranger to game-breaking bugs, so we appreciate the thought.

So what does it all mean, and can we still play solo in Regions, the offline, sandbox mode of Sim City (the answer is: yes, you can)? Single Player will be a brand new mode and, because Sim City saves all games locally, “you can save and load to your heart’s content.”. When it’s time to go back online, the leaderboards, multiplayer and Global Markets will reactivate. It’s the best of both worlds, and how the game was meant to be in the first place (imagine that typed in all caps).

Offline mode also means modding, according to Buechner. Maxis plans to release a series of tutorials and teaching us how to add custom content to inspire our creative ways.

Previously, on the internet…

Every single gamer was up in arms when they discovered that offline play wasn’t part of the Sim City package. Without a constant online connection, Sim City wouldn’t run and millions of complaint-filled pages appeared. It was all about digital rights management (DRM) and how it killed our dreams. Maxis added further gameplay modes with each update delivering incremental improvements at best, until this weeks launch of Update 10, which finally adds offline play.

Got any suggestions for Sim City? Buechner wants you to tweet him should the colour of your shopping center inspire hatred in you.